As I was sitting down this evening to write this blog, it dawned on me that while many of you have heard of our arch ideals, some of you might not know how they originated.
In 1947, when Morty Goldman founded Camp Takajo, his guiding principle in running a summer camp was to teach his campers the importance of becoming morally and ethically sound human beings. While most summer camps were focused on sports programs, Morty’s main emphasis was teaching his campers life skills. He created the Takajo welcome arch in 1948 with twelve arch ideals.
In the opening campfire, during the first week of the summer, twelve campers are selected to participate in a candle lighting ceremony. Each of the arch ideals are introduced to the camp community. When I speak to the camp at the opening campfire, I try to impress upon our boys that these arch ideals are merely words unless we choose to implement them into our daily lives at camp, and hopefully later at home. We encourage the boys to walk through the arch every day and choose a different ideal to try to implement during the day at camp. If you go to the home page of the Camp Takajo website, you will see an “Arch Ideals” button on the left side. I encourage you to click this button and listen to our campers read each arch ideal exactly as they do during the opening campfire.
These ideals remain the cornerstone of Camp Takajo.
- Today in Warrior Camp, the sun came out, and the boys had the opportunity to enjoy all that Long Lake has to offer. A number of boys got up on water skis today, and they enjoyed their free swim period. This evening’s meal was a cookout. Also this evening, the final group of Warrior Indian campers and counselors will head over to Jeff’s house for a movie night and snacks!
- In Junior Camp today, we have half of the group out on a trip to Camp Vega for a social. The other half of the boys had time here at camp to relax and enjoy the cookout.
